Duty to Warn
NEW ORLEANS -- I got out of our truck and approached the four cops standing
in front of the Hwy 11 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. The bridge, which
leads to New Orleans, was five miles across Lake Pontchartrain, five miles
of Hurricane Rita flexing her muscles far out in the gulf, with blasting
winds up to 90 mph. The bridge was secured to all traffic except military
and police. My driver and colleague, Jacob, shook his head forlornly as
we approached the road block; his blond afro seemed to droop in
disappointment as the Louisiana State Trooper walked up to us.
“Bridge is closed. Don’t y’all listen to the radio? No one gets across.”
I waved my press badge at him, and said we needed to get to New Orleans to cover the storm. The trooper asked me to get out and tell my story to the other four cops waiting by the cars. Their eyes all snapped immediately to the Czech military pistol I was wearing in a holster on my hip.
“What in the hell is that?”
“Bridge is closed. Don’t y’all listen to the radio? No one gets across.”
I waved my press badge at him, and said we needed to get to New Orleans to cover the storm. The trooper asked me to get out and tell my story to the other four cops waiting by the cars. Their eyes all snapped immediately to the Czech military pistol I was wearing in a holster on my hip.
“What in the hell is that?”
PEARL RIVER, LA - Despite the resignation of under qualified former FEMA
director Michael D. Brown and the subsequent appointment of Coast Guard
Vice Admiral Thad Allen, residents of coastal Louisiana are vocally
dissatisfied with the federal agency’s performance in the post-Katrina
Mississippi Delta. I spoke with Jennifer Pulsifer, as she sat next to me
at three in the morning, trying to get through the formidable busy signal
presented to Red Cross callers day and night. My “office”, a ramshackle
shed partially crushed by a large tree and swarming with giant,
belligerent cockroaches and violent clouds of mosquitoes, is one of the
few places in the neighborhood with a working phone. Locals come by at
all hours of the night to place calls to various relief agencies. Nearly
every call I’ve overheard has been frustrated with busy signals and
off-putting messages.
Pulsifer remarks, “Come tax time they want your money, but right after a disaster they don’t want to help you out. Unless you left the state; then they’ll hand you a check if you’re in another state.”
Jennifer applied to FEMA for financial aid, but ran into difficulties.
Pulsifer remarks, “Come tax time they want your money, but right after a disaster they don’t want to help you out. Unless you left the state; then they’ll hand you a check if you’re in another state.”
Jennifer applied to FEMA for financial aid, but ran into difficulties.
Republicans like to brag that, as a political party, they are more fiscally responsible than their Democratic counterparts. Well, thanks to President Bush’s four years in office that theory can now take up residence in the urban legend department.
If anything, Bush’s tenure as president proves that the Republican tax cuts (which everyone knows truly benefits the wealthiest one percent), drastically slashing funds in the federal budget for much needed improvements to the country’s aging infrastructure (a perfect example being the outdated power grid), and trying to get away with launching wars on the cheap, have cost taxpayers and their unborn grandchildren more money than anyone could have ever imagined.
If anything, Bush’s tenure as president proves that the Republican tax cuts (which everyone knows truly benefits the wealthiest one percent), drastically slashing funds in the federal budget for much needed improvements to the country’s aging infrastructure (a perfect example being the outdated power grid), and trying to get away with launching wars on the cheap, have cost taxpayers and their unborn grandchildren more money than anyone could have ever imagined.
Most of the very correct objections to the Carter-Baker report appearing in the days since its release have focused on the deeply objectionable Voter ID recommendations. Less attention has been paid to the watershed significance of the Commission’s call to congress to establish a nationwide requirement for a voter verified paper record (VVPR) of every vote and the subtle, but devastating, flaws in the details of that recommendation.
Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's
store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The
dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48
hours without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt,
and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners
and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions
and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists
grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.
The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.
The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.
NEW ORLEANS -- At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Mayor Ray Nagin of
New Orleans announced that the reentry initiated this morning would be
suspended and the city was going to be re-evacuated by Wednesday.
Nagin cites approaching Hurricane Rita as the reason for the evacuation; Rita is expected to reach at least Category 4 status by the time it makes landfall Thursday afternoon, with gale force winds whipping the Delta as early as Wednesday night.
Mayor Nagin stated that it would take only a mere nine inches of precipitation to compromise the levees, flooding New Orleans again for the second time in three weeks. When asked whether the temporary repairs made to the levees were expected to hold, he said that he “did not have that expectation”; adding that the pumps were “not yet operating at full capacity.”
Nagin cites approaching Hurricane Rita as the reason for the evacuation; Rita is expected to reach at least Category 4 status by the time it makes landfall Thursday afternoon, with gale force winds whipping the Delta as early as Wednesday night.
Mayor Nagin stated that it would take only a mere nine inches of precipitation to compromise the levees, flooding New Orleans again for the second time in three weeks. When asked whether the temporary repairs made to the levees were expected to hold, he said that he “did not have that expectation”; adding that the pumps were “not yet operating at full capacity.”
Anyone who’s taken fractions in school knows that 5/3 is greater than 3/5. This is true in mathematics. It’s also true in democracy.
On Friday, September 9, the Camp Casey bus tour came to Cleveland, Ohio. The bus tour is an outgrowth of the encampment of Cindy Sheehan, mother of a killed US solider in the Iraq war, who attempted to meet personally with President George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in August.
Composed of family members of killed and current US troops in Iraq, among others, the Bring Them Home Now bus tour is making its way across the country calling attention to the human costs of the war and occupation. At every stop, they try to share their stories and perspectives with US Representatives or Senators. If they can’t, then with their aides. That was the case in Cleveland.
On September 9 a delegation of tour participants, along with local peace and anti-war activists, planned to meet with an aide to Ohio Senator George Voinovich. They would follow this visit with leaving material at the office (all aides were to be away for part of the afternoon) of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine.
On Friday, September 9, the Camp Casey bus tour came to Cleveland, Ohio. The bus tour is an outgrowth of the encampment of Cindy Sheehan, mother of a killed US solider in the Iraq war, who attempted to meet personally with President George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in August.
Composed of family members of killed and current US troops in Iraq, among others, the Bring Them Home Now bus tour is making its way across the country calling attention to the human costs of the war and occupation. At every stop, they try to share their stories and perspectives with US Representatives or Senators. If they can’t, then with their aides. That was the case in Cleveland.
On September 9 a delegation of tour participants, along with local peace and anti-war activists, planned to meet with an aide to Ohio Senator George Voinovich. They would follow this visit with leaving material at the office (all aides were to be away for part of the afternoon) of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine.
A funeral services company which recently learned that one of its subsidiaries is negotiating a lucrative contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove dead bodies in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, paid $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit several years ago alleging the company desecrated thousands of corpses, and dumped bodies into mass graves.
Moreover, the company paid $200,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that sought to expose that two members of the Texas funeral commission, the agency which regulates the funeral industry, were actually employees of the company they were supposed to monitor--an obvious conflict-of-interest.
In the civil matter, which took place at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida, the plaintiff's attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals.
Moreover, the company paid $200,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that sought to expose that two members of the Texas funeral commission, the agency which regulates the funeral industry, were actually employees of the company they were supposed to monitor--an obvious conflict-of-interest.
In the civil matter, which took place at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida, the plaintiff's attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals.
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to
thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances
and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush
win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign,
according to published reports.
"Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections," according to a May 19 Washington Post story.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown "and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes."
"Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections," according to a May 19 Washington Post story.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown "and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes."
On June 12, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy concluded that Ohio¡¯s supermax prison in Youngstown imposes an ¡°atypical and significant hardship¡± on inmates. Even so, the state plans to relocate 200 death row inmates from Mansfield to Youngstown. Prisoner rights activists are fighting the move.
Before becoming an Ohio State Penitentiary physician, Dr. Ayham Haddad experienced a different side of incarceration, as a political prisoner in Syria. He was arrested and tortured. Upon his release in 1991, Haddad immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.
Now a general practitioner at Ohio¡¯s only supermax, he has a comparative perspective few could imagine, and is amazed to find that the supermax prison where he works also fails to address important human rights issues. ¡°In Syria, I was in solitary confinement for four months,¡± Haddad reflected. ¡°But here, prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years!¡±
Before becoming an Ohio State Penitentiary physician, Dr. Ayham Haddad experienced a different side of incarceration, as a political prisoner in Syria. He was arrested and tortured. Upon his release in 1991, Haddad immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.
Now a general practitioner at Ohio¡¯s only supermax, he has a comparative perspective few could imagine, and is amazed to find that the supermax prison where he works also fails to address important human rights issues. ¡°In Syria, I was in solitary confinement for four months,¡± Haddad reflected. ¡°But here, prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years!¡±